Building the scene of a fire case through soundproof foam analysis experiment and FDS simulation software

In the fire case of Taichung ALA pub, fire spread to the soundproof foam on walls and ceiling and then it escalated. Heavy smoke filled the house, which caused heavy casualties. In order to avoid similar situations, four typical soundproof foams, namely ordinary foam, PU foam, melamine white foam and CR25 rubber foam, were selected in this study. Four instruments, namely Thermo Gravimetric Analyzer, Scanning Electron Microscope, Energy Dispersive Spectrometer, Differential Scanning Calormetry, were used to analyze these four foams. The thermodynamic and thermoreactive properties such as thermal weight loss, composition molecular structure, chemical constituent analysis and the energy change during burning were investigated. The Taichung ALA pub case was used as an example. Fire investigation results and official appraisal report were collected. The thermal reaction parameters for the indoor decoration soundproof foams were obtained using thermal analysis experiment instruments. The Fire Dynamics Simulator developed by National Institute of Standards and Technology was then used to rebuild the model of ALA pub fire case. The changes of the dangerous factors such as temperature, oxygen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, visibility, and smoke layer height, were investigated. The effect of the dangerous factors on escape of people from fire was also studied to understand the major causes for heavy casualties. In addition, the fire engineering improvement and measures for similar situations were proposed. The simulation results show that soundproof foam will belch out heavy smoke as it is burned. The smoke reduced the visibility severely and blocked the way of escaping. The smoke is more life-threatening than heat. No wonder most persons escaping from fire suffered from smoke inhalation, which is also the major life-threatening cause. The result of this study matches that in the official fire appraisal report.